Sunday Brunch
by Col3725
Summary: One Invisible friend, Superman, and three Tyrannosaurus Rexes...Booth takes Christine to Church and they meet Brennan at the diner for brunch. Follow-up to 9x17. One-shot. Pure fluff.


**_Just a little fluff to go along with last night's episode...Enjoy :)_**

* * *

Brennan's in the kitchen, sipping her coffee, when Christine comes bouncing in. "Mommy!"

Brennan smiles at her daughter and sets her coffee mug on the counter. "Good morning, Honey."

"Like my dress?" Christine spins around, showing off her purple and white floral dress. "Daddy say we go to church now."

"It's very pretty. You look beautiful."

"Are you go to church too?" Christine asks, climbing up onto one of the stools at the center island.

Brennan shakes her head. "No, I'm not, but I'll meet you at the diner afterwards for brunch and then we're all going to the Natural History Museum."

Christine smiles. "Yay!" She pauses. "Am I gonna see daddy's indivisible friend at church? I wanna say hi and show him my dress."

"Bones!" Booth growls, walking into the kitchen, adjusting his tie.

Brennan looks only slightly contrite as she glances at her partner and then back to their daughter. "He's invisible, Christine, so only your father and a handful of others can see him."

Christine sighs. "But I wanna show him my dress and my sparkly shoes." She twists the stool around and swings her legs back and forth.

"If you close your eyes, Angel, and believe you can see him, you will, and then you can show him your dress."

Christine turns to her mother and smiles a hopeful smile. "Mommy is tis true?"

Brennan opens her mouth to speak, but then clamps her lips shut, shifting her gaze to Booth for a split second. Seeing the pleading in his eyes mixed with what looks like annoyance, she gives in, despite her insistence that they never lie to their daughter. "Yes, Christine."

"Angel, c'mon, we're going to be late."

Christine slips from the stool and runs around the island. She throws her arms around her mother's legs and hugs her tight. "Bye, Mommy."

Brennan embraces the little girl and squeezes her just as tightly. "I'll see you soon."

"I want pancakes. Can I get pancakes? The chocochip kind."

"Sure, Angel," Booth answers and then gives Brennan a quick peck on the lips. "We talked about letting her form her _own_ opinions, Bones," he whispers just loud enough for only his partner to hear.

"It just popped out."

"Well, just don't let anything else pop out, okay?" He gives her another kiss and steps back. "We'll see you later." He glances down at the little girl now at his side clutching his suit jacket. "Ready to go?"

Christine nods and lets go, skipping to the front door. "Bye, Mommy!" She waves and tries to reach her jacket on the hook. When she can't, she pushes everything off the bench and climbs up. Kneeling now, she grabs her purple coat and slides backwards off the bench. "Daddy, c'mon! Chop, chop!"

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

She nods. "I'm sure."

"And we'll steer clear of the holy water. Thanks for that, by the way."

"I'm just looking out for your health, Booth."

"Yeah, I'm sure that was your only intention with that comment."

She smiles at him and can't resist kissing him one last time. "You better go," she says, glancing at Christine, who's bouncing about in the foyer.

"Daaaady!"

"Bye." He presses a kiss to her cheek and grabs the piece of buttered toast set on the plate in front of the Brennan.

"Hey, that's my toast!"

"Thanks." He takes a bite as he walks through the living room. "Let's go, Angel."

* * *

Booth double-checks his pockets for his keys, cell phone, and wallet, and then unlocks the door. He opens it and steers the almost Christine out of the house.

"Mommy say the indivisible man is superman. Does he has a cape?"

_I'm going to kill Bones. _"Sort of." He opens the car door and makes sure Christine is buckled in her booster seat before shutting the door and hopping into the driver's side.

"Does he's got super powers?"

"Yes, he does."

"Cool! Can he fly like a nairiplane?"

"No, but he can do something even better."

Christine's eyes widen. "What?"

"He can walk on water."

"Really?"

He nods. "Yep."

"Does he help peoples like superman?"

"Yeah, lots of people."

Christine closes her eyes and kicks her legs up and down.

Booth glances at her through the rearview mirror. "What are you doing, Angel?"

"I beliebing I can see your friend, Daddy."

"Can you see him?"

Christine shrugs. "I dun know. I dun know what he looks like."

Booth smiles, pulls out of the driveway, and drives to the church.

* * *

Booth and Christine walk into the diner and the latter immediately finds Brennan at "their" table and runs over to her, climbing up onto her lap.

Brennan hooks her arm around Christine and kisses her head. "Hello, Christine. How was church?"

"Daddy gived me some cardboard, even no he not sposed to." Christine scrunches up her face. "I don want it again."

Booth pulls out the chair across from his two girls and sits down.

"Did you behave?"

Christine nods. "I sitted real still and axed stuff. I paid for you, Mommy."

Brennan raises an eyebrow and glances over at Booth.

"She means prayed," he mouths.

Brennan nods. "Oh, well, thank you for praying for me."

"I paid that you can see superman like me and daddy."

"I—."

"Daddy say there are some people who can't ever see him." Christine wiggles on her mother's lap. "He say too we can't not love those people jus 'cause they can't see superman." She pauses. "I want pancakes!"

"I already ordered your pancakes, Honey."

"Chocochip?"

Brennan nods. "Yes, you said you wanted chocolate chip pancakes. Did you change your mind?"

"No! I want the chocochip kind."

Brennan scoots back in her chair. "Let's go wash your hands and when we come back, maybe our breakfast will be on the table."

"Mommy, it's brunch," Christine corrects, slipping onto the floor.

"You are correct." Brennan stands, grabs her daughter's hand, and smiles at Booth as they pass on their way to the restroom.

* * *

When Brennan and Christine return from washing their hands, the food is already on the table. Christine climbs up onto the seat beside Brennan and picks up her fork. She stabs her double-stack of pancakes and lifts the top one up, bringing it to her mouth.

"Let me cut those for you, Honey." Brennan sits down and pulls the plate towards her. After the pancakes are cut into bite-sized pieces, she pushes the plate back in front of Christine. "Do you want syrup?"

Christine nods. "Yes, please, Mommy."

Brennan smiles and drizzles some syrup onto the stack. "Is that good?"

"More!"

Brennan continues to pour the thick liquid until Christine says to stop. "There you go."

"Thank you, Mommy."

"You're welcome."

Christine immediately goes to town on her breakfast, which doesn't surprise either of her parents, who know she has a healthy appetite.

Brennan spears a raspberry with her fork and pops it in her mouth. "I wasn't positive what you were in the mood for this morning since it seems to change frequently."

"I was craving bacon, so good choice, Bones," Booth says, biting off a piece of crispy bacon.

"How was church?"

"We missed you there."

"You know why I wasn't there, Booth."

He nods. "Yeah, I know, I can still miss you, though, and wish you were there with us."

"I suppose you can."

"Christine loved it." He beams.

"You're her hero and she loves you. If you enjoy going to church, so will she, at least until she's old enough to form her own opinions and realize that her father's delusional," Brennan says with a smile.

He decides to skip over the comment and continue. "She loved singing along to all the songs and kept asking me if Superman was in the pews."

"I assume you told her yes, since you believe he's everywhere."

"I told her He was sitting right next to her. She scooted closer to me, telling me she wanted to give Him more room."

Brennan smiles. She may not believe herself, but her husband is happy and her daughter seems to have had a good time and that is all that matters to her. If nothing else, their daughter will certainly have a highly developed imagination and that is something Brennan can support.

"I was thinking we hit up the T-Rex exhibit first," he says, after shoveling a forkful of eggs in his mouth and swallowing.

Christine perks up. "I wanna see the T-Rex."

"I can give you a sneak-peek."

Brennan shakes her head, knowing exactly what is coming. She isn't able to suppress the laugh that bubbles up due to the vivid memory of that night almost a month ago.

He looks around, drops his fork, and brings his arms close to his body. He curls his fingers into claws and looks Christine in the eye before starting to flail around and roar.

Christine giggles. "Daddy's a T-Rex, Mommy!" She's giggling so much she can't breathe.

Booth eventually stops and smiles at his daughter.

Brennan shakes her head. Her husband is a child sometimes and she can't help but love him more at times like this, especially when their daughter is giggling and smiling brilliantly and wanting to see it again and again and again.

"Teach me, Daddy. I wanna do the T-Rex too!" Christine abandons her half eaten pancakes.

"Okay, Angel, bring your arms in like this," he demonstrates. "Then make your hands into claws, like this," he shows her. "Now move from side to side and roar," he does just that, gaining more attention from the other customers in the diner.

Christine copies him exactly, her roars being interrupted by giggles. "Mommy, too."

Booth breaks character for a second and nudges his partner. "C'mon, Bones."

Brennan laughs, shaking her head. "No, you look foolish."

"C'mon, Bones," he repeats.

Brennan shakes her head again. "No amount of begging is going to make me pretend to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex."

"Please?"

Brennan crosses her arms over her chest and stands firm.

Booth shrugs and gives up, continuing to pretend to be a dinosaur with Christine. After a couple minutes, out of the corner of his eye, he sees Brennan pull her arms into her chest and curl her fingers into claws. He smiles when she starts to not-so-discreetly move side to side and open her mouth as if to roar but makes no sound.


End file.
